May 09-A,2023

Cades Cove 06 03/02/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee
We can't help how we see things.
How we feel about things.
How we think about things.

But, if we work at it,
we can see that we cannot help how we see things.

We think that how we see things
is how things are.
And the discrepancy between
how we see things
and how things are
is the source of many of our problems.

If we could only see what we look at--
if we could only see what's there--
our responses would be much more 
understandable and in order.

And there would be much less
in the way of arguing,
hating,
fighting
and warfare
going on in the world.

I propose that we come together
and declare:
"There is how I see things,
and there is how you see things,
and we are never going to talk
the other into seeing things the same way.
So.
Let's not let that get in the way,
and go on about our legitimate business
with one another
anyway, nevertheless, even so,
and wish each other well
when we part,
and mean it."

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May 08-B, 2023

Francis Beidler Forest 23 06/23/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Audubon Wildlife Refuge, Harleyville, South Carolina
Meister Eckhart said, 
"The final leave-taking 
is leaving God for God."

The God we leave is the God 
of the doctrines and dogmas,
the creeds and catechisms,
the theologies and the debates,
the sermons and the Sunday school lessons...

The God we leave God for
is the Transcendent reality
beyond all discourse, 
logic,
reason and thought,
of which nothing can be said,
and we are left only
with the experience 
of more than words can say.

Leaving Heinrich Zimmer to observe:
"The best things cannot be said
(Because there are no words or thoughts,
only the experience, of being in love,
for example),
and the next best things cannot be understood
(Because we cannot agree on what the words mean),
which leaves us to talk about
the third best things
(News, weather, sports, argument and gossip).
 
The difference between what can be
thought and said
and what cannot be thought and said,
but only experienced,
is a difference ignored/dismissed
by the vast majority of the world's population.

There is a world, 
a universe,
about which we know nothing,
because we will not stand dumb
before it
and seek to experience
what it might reveal to us
of itself.

I am calling us to know 
that there is that which 
we do not know,
and to stand/sit silent
before it,
inviting it into our presence.

This is the entire cosmos
of the unconscious mind,
available to all 
who will stand/sit
at the brink of the precipice,
on the edge of the void,
reflecting on,
open to,
what is before us,
around us,
within us,
about us
that we do not know.
That is "more than we can
ask, or think, or imagine."

As a recurring meditative exercise
of consciousness before unconsciousness,
to encounter what opens within us
to greet what is beyond us
and see where it goes.

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May 08-A, 2023

Beidler Forest 06/23/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Audubon Wildlife Refuge, Four Hole Swamp, Harleyville, South Carolina
Asking the questions that beg to be asked
and saying the things that cry out to be said
are the foundation of realization.

If we aren't digging, digging, digging
into all the assumptions,
commonplaces,
expectations,
things taken for granted,
sacred presumptions,
and holy ground,
within and without,
we are going to serve the same old same old
outlook,
attitude
and ways of thinking
and doing things
for the remainder of our life.

BOO!BOO! on that, I say!
FIE! FIE! on that!

Ask, and go on asking.
Knock, and go on knocking.
Dig, dig, dig and keep on digging.

What makes you think that something is so?
That you are right about what you think?
How do you know what you know?
Who says so?
What gives them their authority?

We cannot help how we see things,
but.
We can be aware of how we see things.
And we can make deep inquiries regarding
what makes us think that the way we see things
is the way to see things.

How else might we see things?
What is keeping us from seeing things that way?

Become your own authority,
and question authority at every turn.
Throughout the time left for living.

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May 07-B, 2023

Before Sunrise 11/04/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — The Cypress Pond, Down East North Carolina
Let come what's coming,
let go what's going,
and let that be that.

That is pretty much how turtles
and giant sequoias do it.
And moose.
And opossums.

Human beings, not so much.
We have ideas
of how things ought to be
that make it difficult
to accommodate ourselves
to how things are.

We want more than we have 
any business having.

And our way!

Who lives these days
without endlessly striving
to have their way?

Be a stream flowing along
with no idea of having its way
and always having it.
Always going where gravity
and conditions/circumstances
require going,
and always getting there.

Be a cork on the water,
a leaf in the wind.
What do corks and leaves care?

One day is as good as another
to a pig and a mongoose. 
They never even know 
what day it is!

It's like being always retired
to them.

My Way! My WAY! NOW!!!
Never occurs to them.

–0–

May 07-A, 2023

Bass Harbor Lighthouse 01 Oil Paint Rendered — Mount Desert Island, Maine
It is only a matter
of knowing what's what
and doing what needs
to be done about it
in each situation
as it arises.

That is harder than it should be
because we keep getting in the way.

Remember Adam and Eve?

The Garden of Eden metaphor
plays out times everybody 
on the planet
and every situation that arises
for each one
every day.

We get in the way
with our preferences,
desires,
agendas,
plans,
interests,
routines...

Our life gets in our way,
keeping us from being alive
to the time and place of our living.

Trying to live life as we want it to be 
prevents us from living the life
that is ours to live
in response to each situation as it arises.

We have more important things to do--
and live to impose
our list of more important things
onto every situation that comes along.

And there we are.
Nothing is more important
that what we declare to be important.

You might think that our idea 
of what is important
would have proven itself deficient
by now,
given the way things have turned out,
across the country,
around the world.

But no! We are still hot in our pursuit
after what we want NOW!
No reconsideration/reevaluation ever enters
the picture,
only working harder and harder
in the service of what isn't working.

When it is only a matter
of knowing what's what
and doing what needs
to be done about it
in each situation
as it arises.

–0–

May 06-B, 2023

Bass Harbor Moon 09/25/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Mount Desert Island, Maine
"Government of the people,
by the people,
for the people,"
has a nice ring to it, but.
It won't pay the bills--
particularly the kind of bills
Clarence Thomas and members of Congress
like to ring up.

The motto has to be tweaked a bit
to get it right:

"Government of the Corporations,
by the Corporations,
for the Corporations,
and to hell with all other considerations!"

That puts the Founders
in the center of exactly how things are.
They should have seen it coming,
except that who could have imagined then
the kind of money that is influencing votes
now?

Oh, how I would love to see
the way things would look
if the good of ALL the people 
were actually taken to heart
with every vote taken
by Congress and the Supreme Court.

The way the world would look
if it worked worldwide 
with the good of ALL the people at heart.

Favoring the rich and powerful
at the expense of everyone else,
and playing "the people" off 
against other races and classes 
of "the people" to the benefit
of some people more than others
has us where we are today,
and where we will be
"when all is said and done."

And no one has figured out 
how to turn things around
in favor of equal rights for ALL people
through all the epochs and ages
up to here/now.

The selfish/greedy/vicious gene corners every market
all the time.
The game is tilted to favor the survival
of that gene
no matter how many times the game is replayed
with the universe coming and going
and nothing changing
to favor "Peace on earth, goodwill to ALL."

–0–

May 06-A, 2023

Aspens at Mule Shoe Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta
The black trunks in the image
are the trees' attempt to heal themselves
where elk have peeled away and eaten bark
in the winter months. 

Both trees and elk are doing their best
with what they have to work with
to make things work
as well as they can. 

You and I are right in there
with the trees and elk,
doing our best to make things work
as well as they can.

We all would do better
with better choices,
better options,
and we are all limited 
to the choices/options
available to us.

Living/working/voting
to make a wider range
of choices/options 
available to all people
is incumbent upon us all.

This includes abortion rights
and LGBTQ rights,
civil rights,
human rights
throughout the country and the world.

Those who know best and must be pleased
haven't ever known being refused necessities
on any level.
Privilege is that way.
The underprivileged bear burdens
privilege would unable to manage.

Laws restricting choices
and forcing unbearable burdens
are not what we must be about
as human beings serving humanity.

Living to gain the approval
of those in authority
is lap dog mentality,
and we all deserve better than that
in the politicians elected
to serve all the people.

May we all live long enough
to elect politicians
who do that very thing!

–0–

May 05-B, 2023

Seascape Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina
When Carl Jung was asked
if he believed in God,
he replied: 
"I do not believe.
I know."

I would have said,
"I do not believe in believing."

"God" as we have been taught of "God"
exists only as the production/projection
of human beings,
forced onto us by an orthodox priesthood
with their livelihood at stake
in selling their idea of God
to the people protecting their lives
and providing the wherewithal for their existence.

"God" is the product of some priesthood
throughout time.
Which "God" we are talking about
when we say, "Do you believe in God?"
depends upon the priesthood in charge of
generating the idea of God behind the question.

The transcendent ground/foundation/background/matrix
of life
exists only as experience
and has from the beginning of experience,
but must be "theologized"
in order to be worth anything
to those who would profit from its presence.

Knowing "God" is experiencing the transcendent
beyond experience without theology or belief.
Without attempting to manipulate/control 
transcendent reality in serving the perceived
interests/needs of "believers."

The experience of transcendent reality
is enhanced by the right kind of silence
in the presence of nature, art and music,
or the wonder of anything capable 
of generating wonder--
but it cannot be produced at will
or made to perform as directed.

What it means, 
how it might be used
in the service of our wants and desires,
what its purpose is,
and how it spends its time
on its days off
are all open to speculation,
but the transcendent
is beyond all thought and conversation,
and we are best served by it
by leaving it as
a source of awe and wonder,
and understanding our role
in this scheme of things
as being extensions of transcendence ourselves,
and treating one another as though we are,
with honor and respect
and mutual care and support
throughout all the days of our lives.

–0–

May 05-A, 2023

A Flight of Geese 11/14/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Bur Mil Greenway, Lake Brandt, Greensboro, North Carolina
What stirs your interest?
Piques your curiosity?
Ignites your passion?
Catches your eye?
Calls your name?
Encourages your participation?

How many of those things 
are in a day?
A week?
A month?

How can you restructure your life
to include more of those things
in your days,
weeks,
months?

If you are plodding through
too many days that are just alike
with little in them that stirs you to life,
it's time for a shift in direction.

Give your interests,
your curiosity,
your passion,
your eye
the driver's seat
and invite them to take you
where they would like to go.

Sit back and enjoy the ride.

–0–

May 04-B, 2023

Big Creek 11/07/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
The worst thing that ever happens to us
can also be among the best things that ever happens to us.

Our worst experiences 
can be our best experiences.

Bad can also be good.
Good can also be bad.

Things are not one way only.

We have to expand our mind
to take into account
the allness of everything,
to be done with the straight and narrow
and to understand the place
of crooked, contrary and contradictory
in the way life is.

We over-think everything,
and have to learn to dance
without thinking anything ever at all.

Dancing is all grace and forgiveness,
laughter and magic.
Things thinking knows nothing about,
with its straight lines
and narrow margins for error.

We do not think our way into heaven.
We live our way there
by dancing with what life brings us,
eschewing expectations, regimentation
and regulation
by allowing things to be what they are
and seeing what they have to show us
about generosity, kindness, mercy
and peace.

It comes down to allowing things 
to be how they are
and letting them show us
how they also are.

Polarities are not so different
after all.

–0–

May 04, 2023 – A

Early Light 11/04/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Down East North Carolina Cypress Pond
There is nothing 
we cannot deny.

Denial keeps us where we are. 
If it weren't for denial,
where might we be?

Denial is a superpower in a negative sense.

Recovering alcoholics know about
the power of denial--
and the power of looking denial in the eye,
facing the truth of
the legitimate pain of life,
and doing what must be done
in the way of acceptance and adaptation,
working to put ourselves in right relationship
with the truth of how things are,
and the truth of how we wish things were,
and the work it is going to take
to accommodate ourselves to the reality
of the discrepancy between what we want
and what's what--
and get up and do what needs to be done
every day.

Anyway!
Nevertheless!
Even so!

Every day!

–0–

May 03, 2023 -B

Castle Mountain 09/21/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Bow River, Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park, Alberta
The culture/the world is in hot pursuit
of the perfect means
With no idea of an end worthy of it.

I wish I remembered the name 
of the photographer
who said,
"The more equipment you have,
the fewer pictures you take."

Fine clothes and tattered lives.

We draw the wrong lines
in the wrong places.

Native Americans would go on vision quests,
which amounted to days
of emptiness, stillness and silence--
time spent waiting for things to become clear.

How much time in a week 
do we devote to clarity?

We think we are clear enough 
about what is important,
we just need better means (more money)
to get what we want.

It is what we want that is lacking.
We need better wants!
We are confused, conflicted and unclear
about what matters most.

First, we have to be right
about what we need.

Then, we can worry about the wherewithal
to acquire it.

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